Broken Thunderbird on Linux Mint

I’ve been having an odd issue with Thunderbird 5.0, 6.0 and 7.0 developmental builds (Thunderbird 3.1 works fine) breaking on Linux Mint 10 when attempting to override add-on compatibility checking. I’ve posted this on mozillaZine at Thunderbird Builds.

I first attempted to manually go into the Config Editor and add the following Boolean entries set to false:

  • extensions.checkCompatibility.5.0b
  • extensions.checkCompatibility.6.0a
  • extensions.checkCompatibility.nightly

When I go into the add-ons manager it does show add-on compatibility checking is disabled and I have no add-ons currently installed. I go to install an add-on and restart and I end up with the image below. At first I thought it was one of two add-ons I was trying to force to work Personas Plus ChromEdit Plus, so I tried just installing an add-on that was compatible with Thunderbird 6. Same result after restart. I’ve done this on copied as well as fresh profiles and end up with the same result each time I make a change in the config editor.

It was then suggested to try and install the add-on compatibility reporter and let it make changes to the setting. So I created a new burner profile for Thunderbird 5 Beta 2 with no add-ons and no accounts. I installed the add-on and Thunderbird came up on the first restart. For this add-on to fully “kick-in” a second restart is required. Upon the second restart I ended up with the above screen again. The next suggestion was to add the following lines to my prefs.js for this profile:

user_pref(“extensions.checkCompatibility”, false);
user_pref(“extensions.checkCompatibility.5.0b”, false);
user_pref(“extensions.checkCompatibility.7.0b”, false);
user_pref(“extensions.checkCompatibility.nightly”, false);
user_pref(“extensions.checkCompatibility.nightly.5.0b”, “false”);

Upon reviewing the pref.js for this now dead profile I determined I had all these entries already. With the exception of  user_pref(“extensions.checkCompatibility.7.0b”, false); which is actually not used as has been replaced by user_pref(“extensions.checkCompatibility.nightly”, false);. I have included the contents of the pref.js file at the end of this post.

Again to review. This is a fresh profile with no extensions, themes or anything else installed. No account has been setup yet either. All I have to do is make a change to the extensions.checkCompatibility (either through about:config or the add-on compatibility reporter) and I have managed to have a broken Thunderbird upon restart. All I can do at that point is nuke the profile and create a new one. Further, I have no issues with this in Thunderbird 3.1 or any of the Thunderbird builds on Windows 7.

So, I am wondering if anyone has run into this issue before. I am also wondering if it has anything to do with Mint 10. But, then I don’t understand how changing the add-on compatibility checking (especially when there are no add-ons installed) would break Thunderbird.


# Mozilla User Preferences

/* Do not edit this file.
*
* If you make changes to this file while the application is running,
* the changes will be overwritten when the application exits.
*
* To make a manual change to preferences, you can visit the URL about:config
* For more information, see http://www.mozilla.org/unix/customizing.html#prefs
*/

user_pref("app.update.lastUpdateTime.addon-background-update-timer", 1308774492);
user_pref("app.update.lastUpdateTime.background-update-timer", 1308774492);
user_pref("app.update.lastUpdateTime.blocklist-background-update-timer", 1308774492);
user_pref("app.update.lastUpdateTime.microsummary-generator-update-timer", 1308774492);
user_pref("app.update.lastUpdateTime.search-engine-update-timer", 1308774492);
user_pref("app.update.postupdate", true);
user_pref("browser.cache.disk.capacity", 1048576);
user_pref("browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run", false);
user_pref("browser.cache.disk.smart_size_cached_value", 1048576);
user_pref("extensions.acr.firstrun", false);
user_pref("extensions.acr.previousApplicationVersion", "5.0b2pre");
user_pref("extensions.blocklist.pingCountVersion", 0);
user_pref("extensions.bootstrappedAddons", "{}");
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.3.0", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.3.1", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.3.1a", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.3.1b", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.3.1p", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.3.1pre", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.3.3", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.3.3a", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.3.3b", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.3.3p", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.3.3pre", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.5.0", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.5.0a", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.5.0b", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.5.0p", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.5.0pre", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.6.0", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.6.0a", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.7.0", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.7.0a", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.8.0", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.8.0a", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.nightly", false);
user_pref("extensions.databaseSchema", 3);
user_pref("extensions.enabledAddons", "langpack-en-US@thunderbird.mozilla.org:3.1,langpack-en-GB@thunderbird.mozilla.org:3.1.99,compatibility@addons.mozilla.org:0.8.5,{972ce4c6-7e08-4474-a285-3208198ce6fd}:5.0b2pre");
user_pref("extensions.installCache", "[{\"name\":\"app-system-share\",\"addons\":{\"langpack-en-US@thunderbird.mozilla.org\":{\"descriptor\":\"/usr/share/mozilla/extensions/{3550f703-e582-4d05-9a08-453d09bdfdc6}/langpack-en-US@thunderbird.mozilla.org\",\"mtime\":1307821229000},\"langpack-en-GB@thunderbird.mozilla.org\":{\"descriptor\":\"/usr/share/mozilla/extensions/{3550f703-e582-4d05-9a08-453d09bdfdc6}/langpack-en-GB@thunderbird.mozilla.org\",\"mtime\":1307821228000}}},{\"name\":\"app-global\",\"addons\":{\"{972ce4c6-7e08-4474-a285-3208198ce6fd}\":{\"descriptor\":\"/opt/thunderbird5/extensions/{972ce4c6-7e08-4474-a285-3208198ce6fd}\",\"mtime\":1308774333000}}},{\"name\":\"app-profile\",\"addons\":{\"compatibility@addons.mozilla.org\":{\"descriptor\":\"/home/elguru/.thunderbird/b3cg47si.CRASH ME!/extensions/compatibility@addons.mozilla.org.xpi\",\"mtime\":1308774334000}}}]");
user_pref("extensions.lastAppVersion", "5.0b2pre");
user_pref("extensions.pendingOperations", false);
user_pref("mail.append_preconfig_smtpservers.version", 2);
user_pref("mail.attachment.store.version", 1);
user_pref("mail.folder.views.version", 1);
user_pref("mail.openMessageBehavior.version", 1);
user_pref("mail.rights.version", 1);
user_pref("mail.spam.version", 1);
user_pref("mailnews.quotingPrefs.version", 1);
user_pref("mailnews.start_page_override.mstone", "5.0b2pre");
user_pref("mailnews.tags.$label1.color", "#FF0000");
user_pref("mailnews.tags.$label1.tag", "Important");
user_pref("mailnews.tags.$label2.color", "#FF9900");
user_pref("mailnews.tags.$label2.tag", "Work");
user_pref("mailnews.tags.$label3.color", "#009900");
user_pref("mailnews.tags.$label3.tag", "Personal");
user_pref("mailnews.tags.$label4.color", "#3333FF");
user_pref("mailnews.tags.$label4.tag", "To Do");
user_pref("mailnews.tags.$label5.color", "#993399");
user_pref("mailnews.tags.$label5.tag", "Later");
user_pref("mailnews.tags.version", 2);
user_pref("network.cookie.prefsMigrated", true);
user_pref("xpinstall.whitelist.add", "");
user_pref("xpinstall.whitelist.add.36", "");